Do you drink coffee because you are a smart (and also very attractive and funny and an all-around catch) or are you smart because you drink coffee? Itโ€™s a real chicken-and-the-egg situation weโ€™ve got going on here, and new research has only further complicated the issue. According to Inc, studies into the cognitive effects of coffee show that consuming your favorite beverageโ€”as well as tea and chocolateโ€”does in fact make you smarter.

And itโ€™s not just one study. Multiple explorations into the neuroscience of caffeine have found a variety of ways that coffee and caffeine brain health and resilience. One study, a joint effort between the National Institute of Aging and Johns Hopkins University, corroborates something weโ€™ve reported previously here on Sprudge: caffeine shows signs of protecting the brain from Alzheimerโ€™s and Parkinson’s. This is due to methylxanthinesโ€”a โ€œclass of chemical compound found in coffeeโ€โ€”that promotes โ€œsustained cognitive performance and can protect neurons against dysfunction and death.โ€ The study also found that xanthine metabolites, the chemicals produced when your brain processes caffeine, โ€œmay contribute to [coffeeโ€™s] beneficial effects.โ€

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Adding to these findings, a meta-analysis of 11 previous studies published in the World Journal of Surgical Oncology found that coffee and tea reduce not only the risk of Alzheimerโ€™s but of brain cancer as well.

Lastly, a study performed at Okayama University finds that coffee compounds Caffeic acid (CA) and chlorogenic acid (CGA) have antioxidative properties, specifically on the glial gland and โ€œprevents rotenone-induced neurodegeneration in both the brain and myenteric plexus.โ€ Inc breaks it down into layperson terms: โ€œcaffeine makes your brain more flexible and resilient.โ€ But if you donโ€™t believe them, just look at this happy little mouse from the actual Okayama University study.

So if you want to be S-M-R-T like me, make sure you are drinking lots of C-O-F-E.

Zac Cadwaladerย is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.

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